Philosophy of life Essay

NAGAPPAN SETHURAMAN Existentialism as a school of intellection is historic all in ally and culturally of European origin. Ever since it was recognised as the dominating school of thought of the West in the midtwentieth century, it has leftfield its impact on literary works which has two been genuine and noteworthy (Chatterji 10). Existentialism does not offer a preen of doctrines or a single philosophy system. It has been diversely defined and interpreted by various thinkers over the years.As a result, as a philosophy, empiricalist philosophy by its rattling nature defies and abhors systematization (Ahmad 10). N perpetuallytheless, it is achievable to identify certain traits of this school of thought. t come erupt ensemble the experientialists emphasise the importance of the soul as rise up as his needydom and responsibility for being what he is ( mo economic con junctureption h atomic number 18 423). In their attempt to describe mans globe and its interlockings , the origin of its conflicts, and the anticipation of overcoming them (Ahmad 13), existential philosophers focus their upkeep on certain typefaces of adult male innovation.Srivastava enumerates them as follows b) it is neer safe and ever at the mercy of chance, c) it is bounteous of suffering, of one variety or separate, d) it is full of conflict, e) it is decayed in guilt, f) it cannot escape from the final situation of finish (185). These tenets of existentialism feel been widely reflected in the literature of the world since the advent of Sartre who established an inter military action mingled with literature and philosophy in his writings. John Macquarrie sums up the essence of existentialism as, On the whole, it has been the sad intellect of aliveness that has been prevalent among the existentialists (Macquarrie 164).Almost all abundant writers of the present generation have handled the doctrines of existentialism in their works. This is the main reason why mans disaffection, dread, absurdity, bad faith, responsibility, commitment to freedom, anguish ar the truly hall trains of 20th century literature (Ahmad 5). As a fableist, Anita Desai exhibits a strong inclination towards the existentialist variant of the gentlemans gentleman troth. In particular, she voices the mute miseries and helplessness of marital women tormented by existentialist problems and predicaments (Prasad 139).A cleaning woman novelist, Desai has won a niche by exploring the frantic world of women, bringing to perch the various deeper forces at work in feminine sensibility as well as psychology. This perceptiveness leads her to examine the soul of her women protagonists wbiddy they ar confronted with the absurdity of life. This draws her attention to the darker side of life. She projects a tragic vision in her novels by placing her womanish protagonists in contrary situations. Desai further examines her women protagonists as various(prenominal)s who rele gate themselves hale into uncongenial environments, fighting against the betting odds.This problem of the The Indian round off of realness Literature in English, Vol. 1, nary(prenominal) I Jan, 2005 tragic tension in the midst of the person and their unfavourable environment acquires the dimensions of existential angst. Starting from her set-back novel Cry the Peacock to the latest Baumgartners Bombay, all her novels highlight the existentialists predilection for portraying the predicament of man. Me very(prenominal) critics have traced dark glasses of existentialist thought in the novel of Anita Desai. cartridge clip and again her studys and characters have been interpreted in the light of existential philosophy.In this regard it has been pointed aside Desais chief concern is pitying man relationship. Her central source is she existential predicament of an individual, which she projects th furious incompatible couples- very nociceptive wives and ill matched hub bys. She is a minute commentator and perceives anything mutely, minutely and delicately. Whenever she creates a poetical situation, she gives it a everlasting(a) poetic treatment to every detail (Singh 12) Anita Desais characters be self-conscious of the reality a go them and they train a backbone of loneliness, alienation and pessimism.She adds a impudent dimension turning inward into the realities of life and plunges into the deep-depths of the homophile psyche to score out its mysteries and chaos in the minds of characters. Particularly set up on the Mountain has been determine as the lyrical fictionalization of the quintessence of existentialism (Gupta 185). A dummy up study of the texture and theme of the novel in relation to the tenets of existentialism justifies the supra notice. It has been note that set down on the Mountain displays prissy dramatisation of experiences of certain women embroiled by the miscegenation centering of life (Choudhury 77).This nov el deals with the existential angst experienced by the female protagonist Nanda Kaul, an superannuated skirt living in isolation. It to a fault projects the inner garboil of a small younker woman, Raka, who is haunted by a sentiency of futility. Thirdly, it presents the occupy of a helpless woman, Ila das who is in conflict with forces that atomic number 18 a homogeneous respectable to be encountered, resulting in her tragic decease. Thus, the existential themes of solitude, alienation, the futility of tenders beingness and campaign for survival mannequin the major themes of the novel.Fire on the Mountain falls into ternion percent festers, each further change integrity into some(prenominal) succinct chapters of unequal length. The starting line section titled Nand Kaul at Carignano runs into ten chapters. This section deals with Nanda Kaul, the main protagonists lonely(a) life in Kasauli. Raka comes to Carignano forms the second section and it contains twen ty one chapters. It portrays Nanda Kauls change of locating towards Raka, her undischarged gram female child. The final section Ila coney leaves Carignano is divided into thirteen chapters. This section presents the tragic wipeout of Ila Da, Nanda Kauls childhood sensation.In all, the volume runs to 145 pages. The structural unity, as suggested by the section captions is offered by Carignano, Nanda Kaul and Raka, caterpillar track counter to one some other complemented by that of Ila dassie also provide unity of structure. Like the other works of Anita Desai, the present novel contains neither any story value nor events that ar interesting by themselves. The entire novel revolves round the existential angst experienced by the women protagonists. In this novel, the story element is very thin and there is practically no action except for the tragic end (Indira 96).The story revolves round the inner lives of the two female protagonists, Nand Kaul and Raka. Nanda Kaul is th e wife of Mr. Kaul, the Vice-Chancellor of the Punjab University. When the novel begins, Nanda The Indian follow of World Literature in English, Vol. 1, nary(prenominal) I Jan, 2005 Kaul is living in Carignano, remote from the madding crowd. She is leading a life of isolation and introspection. She shuns all homophile company. Even the toters arriver to deliver the letter is frowned upon by her. nevertheless this be quietude does not last farawayseeing.Raka arrives at Carignano to ameliorate after her typhoid attack. The old woman and the raw girl live in double singleness. still as days pass by, Nanda Kaul controls herself drawn towards Raka, something she had not expected. But the modest girl refuses to be befriended and escapes into the hills musical note for company in solitude. Ila Das, Nanda Kauls childhood friend visits Carignano to meet Raka. A one time point out in the Punjab University, Ila Das had lost her job sequent to Mr. Kauls retirement. She has come to Kasauli immediately in her youthful capacity as an officer in the well-disposed welf be department.She fights against child wedding ceremony by edify the local people about the evils of this implement. This invites the wrath of umteen of the villagers of whom Preet Singh is one. His attempts to barter his minuscular daughter for a piddling piece of land and a few goats have been successfully thwarted by Ila Das. He is fraud in wait to settle his score with her. matchless evening, when Ila Das returns late from Carignano to her humble house in the valleys, he waylays her, rapes and murders her. When the news of Ila Dass death is conveyed to Nand Kaul over the earpiece, she is rudely shock and falls dead.Raka unmindful(predicate) of her slap-up grand arrests death, rushes into the house proclaiming ragingly that she has set the timber of fire. Nanda Kaul, Raka and to some extent Ila Das, are embodiments of the existential predicament experienced by the individua l in an un- on a lower floorstanding and even hostile universe. A tiny examination of the characters of these protagonists brings to light how Anita Desai has succeeded in giving manner to her existentialist world-view by dint of these characters and by a discriminating use of come acrossry and types. When the novel begins, Nand Kaul is presented as a recluse.Living all plainly when, except for the company of the servants who defy not disturb her privacy, she brooks no human presence. She wanted no one and nothing else. any(prenominal) else came, or happened here, would be unwelcome intrusion and embarrassment(FM 3). She spends her days in isolation, musing about her preceding(a) and experiencing the existential ennui. From the musings of her agitated mind it appears that as the wife of the vicechancellor for the Punjab University and the go of several children, she has lived a very vigorous and tiring life (Raizada 44).Anita Desai unfurls her knightly in the form of l ong interior soliloquys punctuated by authorial interruptions, Nanda Kaul had witnessed further betrayals and demands in life earlier her retirement to Kasauli. She had lived a monotonous life receiving and treating the endless stream of visitors who utilise to call on her vice-chancellor husband. Her husband had carried on a life-long affair with his mathematics mistress Miss David, whom he would have married, had she not been a Christian. Again, the memories of her children off Nanda Kaul totter at the very thought of her past.As a set about of several children, all demanding and unaccommodative, she had been given too many anxious moments. nary(prenominal) all alone in Carignano, a house associated with many uncanny stories, Nanda Kaul feels that loneliness is the only essential condition of human life. Whenever she looks at the long pine manoeuvers that stand out from among the underwood, she is reminded of her own alienation. Not exactly conscious of what she is del ay for, nonetheless, she is awaiting the indispensable end to all human existence death.She is haunted by the existential angst which has led her to discontinue that human life is basically a lonely struggle against the odds of life. In her case the odds have manifested themselves in the form of an adulterous husband and cantankerous children. Strongly convinced The Indian follow of World Literature in English, Vol. 1, No. I Jan, 2005 that life and dealt a raw deal to her, she has firm to find the implication, if any, of her existence in isolation. She treasures her freedom, her privacy, glad her responsibilities towards her family are over, glad she needs nobody and nobody now needs her (Krishnaswamy 260).This has coloured her outlook on life to a large extent. Her reaction to the arrival of the postman and Raka, her invalid great granddaughter, makes it appear that she has extend a misanthrope. But the truth seems to be that she is a sensitive person preoccupied with the re al nature of her existence as opposed to the illusory life of her past as a vice-chancellors wife and mother to children. If Nanda Kaul was a recluse out of vengeance for a long life of duty and obligation, her great grand daughter was a recluse by nature, by instinct.She had not arrived at this condition by a long route of rejection and sacrifice worry Nanda Kaul, she was born to it, simply (FM 48). Desais in a high place posting about Rakas character at once brings out the parity and difference with that of Nanda Kauls in their mental make up. Rakss characters has been introduced by the novelist as a becloud to Nanda Kauls. If Nanda Kaul signifys a particular aspect of existentialism, which is examined elsewhere in this chapter, Raka epitomises another aspect of the existential predicament the sour of her parents on her life.Anita Desai makes Raka both young temperamentally and solitude-loving. When Raka is first introduced, the reader is informed that she is the grandda ughter of Asha, the most problematic of Nanda Kauls daughters. That she is an unwelcome intruder into Nanda Kauls life is suggested by an image. As Nanda Kaul first looks at her greatgrand daughter who is travel towards her, she reminds the old lady of an insect Raka slowed tear, dragged her foot, then came towards her great grandmother with something despairing in her attitude..She turned a pair of extravagantly large and somewhat protuberant eyes about in a way that do the old lady feel more than ever her resemblance to an insect. (FM 39). However, the old lady is shocked to see the pale and gaunt little girl and is moved to pity. But to Nanda Kaul she was still an intruder, an outsider, a mosquito flown up from the plains to tease and worry (FM 40). Raka herself does not bother more about the blatant lack of warmth(FM 40) exhibited by her great grandmother. She prefers to stay remote from company. Like a loose animal newly caged, she keeps prowling barefoot in her room, lo oking at the stone heaps.She is not interest in flowers or playing as children of her age normally tend to do. By using two reptile images successively in a brush of two pages, and by a suggestive spark advance about Rakas lack of interest in play and flowers, Desai impliedly establishes that there is something weird about her. briefly through several interior soliloquys enacted in Rakas subconscious mind, the reason for the abnormality in her is unfolded. The daughter of an ill-matched couple, Raka has been witness to the brutality and futility of human existence.She is haunted by the recollections of the nightmarish nights that have made her almost a child-stoic. Somewhere behind them, behind it all was her father, domicil from a party, stumbling and cr changeing through the curtains of the night, his mouth opening to let out a flood of rotten stench, lace at her mother with hammers and fists of abuse-harsh, filthy abuse that made Raka cower under her bedclothes and wet her mattress in fright, feeling the stream of urine warm and modify between her legs standardised a stream of blood, and her mother lay down on the floor and take out her eyes and wept.Under her The Indian Review of World Literature in English, Vol. 1, No. I Jan, 2005 feet, in the dark, Raka felt that flat, wet jelly of her mothers being squelching and quivering, so that she didnt know where to launch her feet and wept as she tried to get free of it. forrad of her,no longer on the earthly concern but at some distance now, her mother was shout out. Then it was a jackal crying. (FM 72) The sudden shift from the interior monologue about her bitter past to the present observation of the jackal crying, the latter superimposed on the cause brings out Rakas predicament.By doing this, the novelist the likes ofns the haunting memories to the crying jackals. So Rakas life is a close encounter with things that are wild and frightful- be it the memories of her mother beaten to pulp by a dr unk father or the chilling cry of the jackals. kinda of trying to escape from this harsh and unnerving experiences and memories, Raka goes far and deeper into them as if to fathom the bottom of such wild realities.After some initial hesitation, she ventures deep down the ravine to the mess around Point- a place not publiced by others and from where the cries of the jackals are heard No one ever came here but Raka and the cuckoos that sand invisibly. These the cuckooswere not the obedient domestic razzs that called Nanda Kaul to attention at Carignano. They were the demented birds that raved and beckoned Raka on to a land where there was no sound, only silence, no light, only shade, and skeletons kept in beds of ash on which the footprints of jackals flowered in gray.(FM 90) This passage efficaciously coveys Rakas plight and significance. She is at once a little girl with a splintered psyche and an unornamented symbol of the individuals pastime for meaning. The jackals are s ymbols of the mystery of life and Rakas walk to the Mon happen upon Point is exemplary of her search for something unknown, yet inevitable and indispensable. Not all children would dare to brave the rough terrains of the ravines and impending menace of the jackals. Similarly, not all human beings are conscious of the futility of human existence nor are they in search of newer values.The existential theme of quest for meaning undertaken by those who refuse to remain however as members of the multitude is well brought out in the lonely and mystified wanderings of Raka. In this respect it has been pointed out by Shantha Krishnaswamy Her Rakas childhood has hardened her into a little core of solitary self-sufficiency and now, a young girl up here in the mountains.. her spirit is defiant enough to go chanting I dont care, I dont care, I cant care of anything (FM 73). The ceremonious sweet smells and sounds of girlhood are pruned, she feels drawn by scenes of devastation and failure.T he timbre fires tingle her and she bursts from the shell of Carignano like a sharp, keen edged explosive to set fire to the mountainside. (Krishnaswamy 261, 262) The concluding part of the foregoing observation concerning Rakas predilection for the wood fires needs expatiate analysis for it has emblematic overtones. Ever since her arrival at Carignano, Raka evinces a keen interest in wild fire. This obsession with the timbre fire provides yet another dimension with the forest fire provides to her existentialist preoccupations.now after her arrival at Carignano, on witnessing a fire in the forest she becomes obsessed with forest fires for they seem to her the empirical manifestation of her inner conflict whether to continue with her mediocre and painful and aimless existence imposed upon her by heredity and environment or to revolt against their dictates and attempt to create her own values. The Indian Review of World Literature in English, Vol. 1, No. I Jan, 2005 By an elabora te expression of her free will and demonstration of her ability to choose and act, she sets the forest on fire towards the end of the novel.The fire created by her is the result and manifestation of her existential angst to destroy the old and meaningless to make room for the new and significant. It is an testimony of her search for values in an otherwise unreal existence. Ila Das is the third female protagonist of the novel. irrelevant Nanda Kaul and Raka who are central to the story, her role is only marginal. Nonetheless, Anita Desai has project yet another aspect of the existentialist philosophy through her character. Her life suggests another dimension of calamity and meaningless existence (Jena 30).She is first introduced to the readers, when she calls Nanda Kaul on the phone and informs her of her intended visit to Kasauli to meet Raka. She speaks in a hideous voice (FM 21) and is rather plain in her looks. Through a long interior monologue in Nanda Kauls mind, the reader s are informed of her past. She was Nanda Kauls childhood friend. She had also served in the university as a lecturer, thanks to Nanda Kauls good offices. But concisely after the death of Mr. Kaul she had been ousted and had struggled a lot before finding the present fight as a social welfare officer.A poverty ill loner of aristocratic of child marriage, a practice rampant among the tribals. This lands her in an unenviable situation. She finds herself fighting a lonely battle against a mindless multitude. But she is not cowed down by adversity. She remains starchy in her strong belief and refuses to make any compromises. though she is aware of the dire consequences that she might be forced to encounter, she remains faithful to her cause. She succeeds in stooping several such child-marriage, the prominent one being the marriage of Preet Singhs seven year old daughter.Sustaining herself on a meagre pay and putting up with the inevitable condition of loneliness, she wages a darin g battle against the dictates of the society. Finally, she pays a dear price for her convictions and refusal to compromise. She is set on and murdered by Preet Singh who has been dying for revenge. Though Ila Das plays a minor role in the novel, she is also an allegorical figure. She not only lives in isolation but also braves the brute majority with conviction and commitment as her tools.True, she meets with a tragic end but has made her existence significant in exhibiting courage and determination in the face of askew resistance and threat to life. Her real involvement in peoples welfare assumes tremendous exemplary significance (Jena 30). She epitomises the existentialist concept of struggle against the odds of life. For the existentialist, man is never just part of the existence but always stands to it in a relationship of tension with possibilities of tragic conflict (Macquarrie 17).She stands for the thinking individual who dares to exercise her free will and act consort to her choice rather than submit meekly to the odds of life. The mindless tribal society in general, and Preet Singh in particular, represent the malevolent aspect to human existence-forces that are bent upon thwarting the individuals invention and undoing her. One of the many ways of define tragedy sees it as a clash between the aspiration of human freedom and creativity with a cosmic order that is stronger and defeats man (Macquarrie 189).Though Ila Das loses her chastity and life in the process of her struggle with such brute forces, her life has nonetheless become meaningful by virtue of the fact that she chooses a cause, fights for it and sacrifices herself in trying to accomplish her task. An examination of the use of symbolic representation and imagination in the novel proves beyond doubt the novelists existential concern. She portrays a tragic world where no compromises are made, no epiphanies are exploded, to be totally destruct, as the The Indian Review of World Liter ature in English, Vol. 1, No.I Jan, 2005 sensitive, the visionary suffer nothing but suffocation and oppression. So, the content of the novel is sheer frenzy. The lives of the principal characters are unloved and unlived. (Indira 95,96). In keeping with this concept, Anita Desai resorts to the effective employment of imagery and symbolism in Fire on the Mountain. Her predilection for prey-predator imagery abounds in this novel also. Images of ugliness, loneliness, ending and annihilation are consistently used in order to reflect the existential tone of the novel.An standard pressure of solitary introspection is created with the help of several images. For example, when she receives a call from Ila Das, Nanda Kual turned her head this way and that in an escape. She watched the white hen drag out a twine inch by resisting inch from the ground till it snapped in two. She felt like the worm herself, she winced at its mutilation (FM 21). The same is continued in the adjoining page also Still starting at the hen which was greedily gulping down bits of worm, she thought of her husbands face and the way he would plait his fingers across his stomach (FM 22).This prey-predator image of hen pecking at a worm is suggestive of Nanda Kauls present inner turmoil. Her past suffering at the hands of the adulterous husband and her present sentience about the harsh realities of life are both successfully established by this image. Another classical image employed recurrently is that of the pine guide that stands burnt and alone, which is often an object of attraction for Nanda Kaul She was grey, tall and thin she fancied she could merge with the pine tree and be mistaken for one. To be a tree, no more and no less, was prepared to undertake(FM 4).Again, this image also contributes to the existentialist theme of the novel. Nandas sense of identification with the pine trees suggests her desire for absolute impassibility and withdrawal from life(Indra 97). The image of t he charred pine tree is repeatedly employed in the novel. Raka is reminded of the futility of existence piece she looks at the lonely hills and charred pine trees This hill, with its one destroyed house and one unbuilt one, on the ridge under the fire-singed pines, appealed to Raka at that place was something about it- illegitimate, uncompromising and lawless.The sense of devastation and failure drew her, inspired her (FM 90). Images of insects like lizards, birds like eagles and parrots, and the thematic image of the fire with its connotations of violence and urgency occur at regular intervals, warning the reader of the impending tragedy (Indira 96). The critic S. Indira sums up the significance of imagery in Fire on the Mountain quoting D. H. Lawrence and the novelist herselfIt is the charming mosaic of imagery weave so skillfully by the novelist that makes the Novel a work of art. Quoting D. H.Lawrence who said If I eat an apple, I like to eat it with my senses, Anita Desai h erself stated that the novel in which she attempted this closeness of man and beast, earth and vegetable was Fire on the Mountain. Imagery alone makes it possible and, in the process, the novel gains a richer texture and greater depth. As a critic says, this novel disadvantaged of its imagery, would be an ugly skeleton, chilling the reader The significant house imagery, the images of plants, colour, atmosphere and moon- all contribute to the textual density and typic centrality of the novel.(Indira 96) Another important aspect of this novels narrative technique is its symbolism. There are several symbols that deepen the philosophic implications of The Indian Review of World Literature in English, Vol. 1, No. I Jan, 2005 the novel. To start with, Carignano, Nanda Kauls present abode, is symbolic of the loneliness and barrenness of human life in general and Nanda Kual in particular What pleased and fit her so, here at Carignano, was its barrenness. This was the chief virtue of K asauli, of course- its nakednessOccasionally an eagle swam through this clear undoubted mess hall of light and air .(FM 4) The lonely house is symbolic of the lonely life of Nanda Kual and Raka. The barrenness and starkness associated with its symbolise an essential human condition alienation which is the key note of all existential philosophy. The eagle symbol, like the house symbol, is repeatedly used in the course of the novel to highlight another aspect of existential philosophy, namely quest. The sight of the eagle flying high, makes Nanda long to be able to soar like the bird An eagle swept over. its wings outspread, slide on currents of air without once moving its great muscular wings which remained in repose, in control, She Nanda Kaul.had bided, it occurred to her, to ensue the eagle-gliding, with eyes closed (FM 19). This longing for soaring above the reach of deterministic confines is the hall mark of Rakss characters. To emphasise this aspect, the novelist employs the eagle symbol small-arm describing Rakas walk to the Monkey Point. She was higher than the eagles, higher than Kasauli and Sanwar and all the other hills(FM 61). Thus Nanda Kauls wish and Rakas attempt merge in the eagle-symbol, which denoted their existential angst and quest for values. The forest fire scene has symbolic overtones.Like the The Fire Sermon in T. S. Eliots The Waste Land, the fire in Fire on the Mountain is a destroyer. It is also a purifier (Brown 557). By making use of the universal fire symbol. Anita Desai endows Rakas character with allegorical implications. Raka, the invalid restless little girl who is the product of a broken home, becomes the symbol of the existentialists perception of the individual who finds herself in this hostile and unprofitable world. Yet out of compulsion, she strives to find or create values and significance for her existence.In this regard it has been observed that the symbolic implication of the forest fire is reinforced by the title of the novel, Fire on the Mountain is highly significant from the thematic point of view. The mountain symbolises Nanda Kaul and the fire is symbolic of Rakas wild nature. Nanda is the rocky belt, dry, hardened by time and age. Raka is silent, swift and threatening like forest fire The novel, thus sic may be noted as a story of inabilities of human beings to ignore the world, to place oneself in anothers stance(Choudhury 79).Another factor that adds to the philosophical implications of the novel is the frequent allusions to books and poems. As in other novels in Fire on the Mountain too Anita Desai uses poetry, and this time it is a poem by Hopkins I have want to go Where springs not fail To fields where files no sharp and sided hail And a few lilies downstairs And I have asked to be The Indian Review of World Literature in English, Vol. 1, No. I Jan, 2005 Where no storms come, Where the green swell is in the havens dumb, And out of the swing to the sea. (FM 87).This poem has some connection with he character of Nanda Kaul who quotes it and the poem signifies her desire to be away from the humdrum of life, to a heaven of nature far from the madding crowd. By introducing this poignant stanza from Hopkins poem, Anita Desai highlights the theme of alienation which is the central theme of the novel. The same effect is achieved by introducing an allusion to a passage from The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon which begins with a title When a Woman lives Alone and through the image of a dilapidated house with a poignantly desolate look (FM 27).This image has symbolic overtones as it suggests the lonely and desolate life of Nanda Kaul herself. Again, when Nanda Kaul is in the company of Raka, there is an allusion to The Travels of Macro Polo (FM 87). The reference to this book reminds the Cape of Good Hope. This also adds to the symbolism of the novel. This is miniature adventure like the one Marco Polo undertook in search of something new and promising. Thus, th e characters of Nanda Kaul, Raka and Ila Das are studies of women in isolation.Essentially a writer of existential inclinations, Anita Desai examines tercet important aspects of this school of thought through her protagonists. The predominant traits of existentialism are alienation, quest and conflict. These three aspects are epitomised in the lives of three female protagonists. Nanda Kaul is a study in alienation and existential angst. Raka symbolises the individuals quest for meaning in an otherwise futile life. Ila Das stands for the eternal conflict enacted in the human drama between the individual and the forces of determinism.One frequent ground for these three characters is that they are women who live in isolation both out if choice and compulsion. Desai has examined the predicament of women in wilderness by placing these three characters Kasauli, a place surrounded by hills and valleys, for removed from civilisation. She has consciously done it to examine the predicament and psyche of women in isolation. By placing her female protagonists with nature herself as the backdrop, Anita Desai has indue a symbolic and universal significance to the plight of her protagonists.In this regard it has been pointed out Essentially, Desai is a novelist of existentialist concerns, chiefly considering what F. H. Heinaman described as the enduring human condition. In her novels, she has ably dwelt upon such existentialist themes as maladjustment, alienation, absurdity of human existence, quest for the ultimate meaning in life, decision, detachment, isolation and time as the 4th dimension, focussing on how women in the contemporary urban milieu are bravely struggling against or helplessly submitting to the relentless forces of absurd life (Prasad 140).To sum up, Fire on the Mountain invites comparison with Shakespeares King Lear. In this great tragedy, when he dramatises the bedevilment of betrayed father, Shakespeare removes Lear from the palace and places him i n the wild heath- a hostile place- to suggest that the plight of Lear is identical with the suffering of every wronged father.Shakespeare employs animal imagery to indicate the rotten and corrupt world of the dramatis personae of King Lear. Images of ugly and evil animals like jackals and wolves are recurrently used creating an animal imagery that reinforces the thematic concern of the play, namely the tragedy of human life, The Indian Review of World Literature in English, Vol. 1, No. I Jan, 2005 personified in the life of Lear, a victim of indifference in old age. Anita Desais use of imagery of King Lea.